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Visiting Getty Villa
PHOTO BY ELON SCHOENHOLZ © 2018 J. PAUL GETTY TRUST PHOTO BY TAHNEE L. CRACCHIOLA © 2018 J. PAUL GETTY TRUST PHOTO BY ELON SCHOENHOLZ © 2018 J. PAUL GETTY TRUST
Walk into history at the Getty Villa Museum
the Getty Villa offers an incomparable setting for the study and enjoyment of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria, weaving together art, performances, family activities, lectures, theater, scholarship, conservation, and other activities to create an integrated educational and cultural experience for all ages. The Villa serves as a coastal gateway to the classical past for students, scholars, specialized professionals, and general audiences. ARCHITECTURE
Bordered by coastal mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the Getty Villa vividly evokes the classical world in its landscape and architecture. Modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a first-century Roman country house, the Villa is an airy, sunlit, environment, featuring mosaic floors and colorful trompe l’oeil walls and paintings. Its four gardens and grounds are planted with species known from the ancient Mediterranean, creating lush and fragrant places to stroll. MUSEUM
The Getty Villa houses the J. Paul Getty Museum’s extensive collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, which comprises about 44,000 objects. More than 1,300 of them are on view in 27 galleries devoted to the permanent collection and organized to follow the historical development of classical art from the Neolithic Period through the late Roman Empire (ca. 3000 B.C.-A.D. 600). An additional six galleries present changing exhibitions, often featuring works from other national and international institutions.
Inspired by the popular Percy Jackson book series, the Demigods audio tour, available on the GettyGuide app, takes you on a personal quest around the museum, where you’ll meet heroes, dodge monsters, and avoid a certain unfriendly god.
Complementing the exhibitions and installations at the Getty Villa are a wide variety of public programs. They include an annual outdoor theater production in a dramatic 450-seat outdoor classical theater based on ancient prototypes, staged play readings, musical performances, film 2 screenings, Family Festivals, artist demonstrations, lectures, workshops, and gallery and studio courses.
In addition to the public performances and exhibitions, the Getty Villa hosts a range of scholarly activities fueled by the presence of the antiquities collection and the resources of the Getty Research Library at the Villa, with a capacity of about 20,000 volumes related to the ancient world.
GARDENS
The Getty Villa features four gardens that blend Roman architecture with open air spaces and Mediterranean plants.
In ancient times, gardens served both practical and aesthetic purposes at Roman country homes. They let fresh air and light enter the home, and also acted as gathering places to have conversations or to escape the heat.
About 300 varieties of plants are used in the landscaping of the Getty Villa, many of which can also be found in the Mediterranean region. Visitors can stroll the gardens at their leisure or take guided tours offered multiple times daily.
PHOTO BY SARAH WALDORF © 2018 J. PAUL GETTY TRUST
Open now, at the Getty Villa Museum
ancient Iran and the Classical World find themselves in the spotlight this summer at the Getty Villa Museum as Getty presents the first major U.S. exhibition to highlight the relationship between the Classical World and Ancient Iran. s Exhibition Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World is supported by two innovative digital experiences: a 360-degree immersive film onsite at the Villa and a highly interactive online website at getty.edu/persepolis. Both allow visitors to walk in the steps of a Persian dignitary through a digital reconstruction of the spectacular Achaemenid palace of Persepolis. Coin of King Ardashir I, Sasanian, AD 224–240; Ly le Eng leson / Go l dbe r g C o i n Iran, historically known as Persia, was the dominant nation of western
Asia for over a millennium (about 550 BC–AD 650), with three native dynasties—the Achaemenids, Parthians, and Sasanians—controlling empires of unprecedented size and complexity. The exhibit hosts spectacular ancient works on view that explore the artistic and cultural connections between the rival powers of Iran, Greece, and Rome Their principal military rivals throughout this period were the ancient
Greeks and Romans, with whom they nevertheless enjoyed an active exchange in many aspects of architecture, religion, and court culture, as is demonstrated in the artworks they produced. “The military rivalry between the ancient Persian empires that controlled much of the modern Middle East, and the Greeks and Romans of the eastern
Mediterranean, determined the geopolitical map of Eurasia from Britain in the west to the border of India in the east for over a thousand years.
In the early 5th century BC, against all odds, the Greeks repulsed a series of Achaemenid invasions that would have changed the cultural trajectory of Europe. Two and a half centuries later, Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East brought down the Achaemenids but also inspired an epochal crossfertilization of the two cultures and traditions. The rise of the Romans as the major Mediterranean power from the 2nd century BC made a clash of titans inevitable.
More than once the destinies of Europe and the Middle
East hung on the outcome of mighty battles between the
Roman emperors and the Parthian and Sasanian kings.
Yet throughout all these violent vicissitudes, an active exchange of goods, languages, ideas, faiths, and artistic visions, reflecting a strong mutual respect, flourished in both directions. We see this most vividly in the imperial imagery celebrating their kings and rulers that was propagated by both the Persians and their Greek and Roman adversaries. As we ponder
& C ol l ecti b l es the most significant turning points in Eurasian history, there was perhaps no more momentous encounter than that between Persia and the Classical World,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The ancient works in the exhibition include royal sculpture, spectacular luxury objects, religious images, and historical documents assembled from major museums in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
“Many remarkable objects from Ancient Iran spanning approximately 1,200 years will be on display for the first time in the U.S.,” adds Jeffrey Spier, Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “We are honored to present this exhibition in Southern California, home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran, and to leading academic centers dedicated to the study and appreciation of Iranian history, art, and culture.”
The exhibition is organized in three parts. The first examines the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire in mid-6th century BC, when Cyrus the Great captured western Asia Minor (in present-day Turkey) and conquered the Greek settlements there. The second begins around 330 BC, following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. The final section of the exhibition is devoted to the Sasanian Empire, which, beginning in AD 224, created a new Iranian self-image.
Throughout, the influence and relationship between Persia and the Greeks is brought to life through art, history, and documents.
Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World is on display at the Getty Villa Museum from April 6 through August 8, 2022. The exhibition is curated by Timothy Potts, Jeffrey Spier, and Sara E. Cole, assistant curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. A catalogue written by the curators accompanies the exhibition. Dr. Ali Mousavi, adjunct assistant professor of Iranian archaeology, and Dr. Farzad Amoozegar, director, Iranian music program and Persian music ensemble at UCLA, were consultants on the two digital initiatives. Images above, left to o right, Persian Guard, Achaemenid, 486–465 BC © 2022 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Door Lintel with Lion-Griffins, Parthian, AD 105–115, metmuseum.com; Royal Sphinxes beneath a Winged Disk, Achaemenid, 522–486 BC © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
n, Achaemenid, 500–330 BC | Courtesy of the Or ienta l Institute o f t he Un ive r s i ty o f C h i c a g SUMMER 2022 | 73
